The commitee was told by HSE chief executive Paul Reid the full-year cost of running the test-and-trace system could be as high as €700 million. Mr Reid told the Oireachtas Covid-19 committee he expects the system to cost in the region of €450 million this year but that this will increase for 2021. Mr Reid told Ms Shortall he is “estimating a full annual figure for next year, 2021, will be €700 million”. Earlier the HSE chief said the State may need to increase its lab testing capacity if growth in Covid-19 cases continues. For the completion of contact tracing to take place, the median time stretches to 3.5 days, she said.

Source: The Irish Times September 29, 2020 08:36 UTC